Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan had a brilliant season and is considered the front runner for the NFL MVP award. So it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick lofted a pretty sweet compliment Ryan’s way.
“He does everything well,” Belichick explained, via DJ Bean of CSN New England. “He handles the line of scrimmage well, gets the team in the right plays, plays good in critical situations, deep ball, intermediate throws, possession passes, red passes; he’s athletic, he can get out of some trouble. There’s really no weaknesses to his game.”
Could the relatively calm Patriots coach actually be a bit nervous about his upcoming Super Bowl matchup against Ryan? If so, the stone-faced Belichick likely won’t tip his hand.
In terms of the praise lofted his way, Ryan had a fabulous regular season, recording a career-high 4,944 passing yards, 38 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. He topped all starting quarterbacks, including Tom Brady, with a 117.1 quarterback rating.
As evidenced by last week’s 44-21 blowout win over the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game, the Falcons are scorching hot heading into the Super Bowl. For Ryan and many of his teammates, this is their first Super Bowl appearance. Should they find ways to outwit and outperform Belichick’s Patriots, it would be the biggest accomplishment around the NFL in some time.